Rebuilding Foundations
by neon maverick
Summary: Sequel to Have Faith. Ashley is starting to return back to normal, but when Troy decides to go to camp, will she cope? And how will her feelings influence Troy in his college choices?
1. Stopping Her Smiling

**Wow, so you guys have something more on the Bolton orphans - lucky people. I hope you guys like this story even more than Have Faith. Let's try to beat 84 reviews, okay? I like reviews. **

**I'm trying to get into the habit of putting a disclaimer and stuff, so…**

**Title: Rebuilding Foundations**

**Summary: Sequel to Have Faith. Ashley is starting to return back to normal, but when Troy decides to go to camp, will she cope? And how will her feelings influence Troy in his college choices?**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the HSM characters. I think you guys can guess what I do own. **

**Chapter Title: Stopping Her Smiling**

**And here we go…**

'_I'm sorry to say that your parents have been in a car crash. They died on impact. I'm very sorry.'_

_Falling to the ground, not registering the pain from the phone's weight on my foot, I felt my brother's arms wrap round me. I clung to his chest, mumbling into his top._

Ashley sat up in bed, gasping. She closed her eyes and ran a hand through her tousled hair. She was glad Troy couldn't hear her anymore – she'd been waking him up for months with nightmares. She'd tried to get them under control, and slowly they were starting to lessen. She lay back on the cushions, pulling the crumpled sheets up to her neck.

* * *

'Ash! Breakfast!' Ashley slowly opened one eye.

'Oh man…' she groaned as she turned to look at her clock – 10:30am. 'Do I have to?' she yelled back in the loudest voice she could muster.

'Let me think…' Ashley raised her eyebrows in hope. 'Yes!'

'Dang it.' She hissed, pulling back the covers and crawling out of bed. She trailed downstairs after slipping on some bed socks to keep her feet warm on the cold kitchen floor.

She walked into the kitchen, eyes still half closed, and slowly grabbed the refrigerator door and pulled it open, taking hold of the orange juice.

'Hey Chad.' She yawned out, pulling out her stall and sitting next to him as Troy pushed her bowl of cereal towards her. 'Where's Shane?'

'At home.' Chad said, ruffling her hair. 'Someone had a rough night, it seems.'

'Not really.' She lied, as Troy grabbed the orange juice from her grip as she started to pour it onto her cereal.

Chad laughed. 'Yeah, she's not tired at all.'

'She always says that.' Troy said, pouring the juice into a glass and giving her the milk for her cereal.

'Yo, still here, people.' Ashley waved sarcastically.

'Sorry.' Troy said, noticing she wasn't pouring the milk, just staring. 'But you _are _tired. You need more sleep, kiddo.' He said, taking hold of the milk and pouring it for her.

'Hey, I'm not a little kid – I can do it myself.' She said, reaching for it, but he took it out of her range. 'Troy!' she whined, pouting.

'See? I'll only treat you like an adult when you start–' Troy's cell phone rang and he held one finger up to tell her he wasn't finished. She sighed, deflating, and rolled her eyes, getting up and grabbing a spoon.

Troy answered his phone. 'Hello?'

'_Troy Bolton?' _

'That's me.' He said, resting his phone in between his cheek and his shoulder so that he could point to Ashley's chair, signalling for her not to eat standing up.

'_This is the manager of California Sports – Anthony Thompson. We were wondering whether you'd like to come to the California Basketball Summer Camp for 8 weeks this summer.' _

Troy was stunned by the sudden offer. He'd heard of him – he wouldn't get many more chances like this one, if any. 'Er…' he sent a meaningful look toward Chad.

Chad frowned slightly but didn't push it. 'Hey, Ash – I've got that new Wii game in my bag. You wanna play it?'

Ashley looked towards her older brother for approval and he nodded, silently thanking Chad. 'Yes!' she whispered excitedly, grinning and following Chad into the front room.

'Sorry, you were saying?'

'_Cali's Basketball Camp.'_

'Oh. Yeah. Can I get back to you on it?'

'_I'm sorry; we only have one place left.' _

'Right…' Troy glanced towards the door Ashley had exited through, where Chad was now leaning against the frame curiously. '…Sure.' Troy finished uncertainly. 'Thank you, Mr Thompson. Bye.' He hung up and looked at Chad. 'I've accepted Cali's Basketball Camp.' He said quietly.

'What's wrong with that?' Chad said, walking forward.

'I don't want to leave her.' Troy said, looking down at his phone.

Chad bit his lip, immediately understanding. 'I'd say I'd look after her, but I'm going too.'

'Thanks.' Troy said, pursing his lips.

Chad smiled comfortingly and walked back into the front room. 'Two player, Ash?' Troy heard him say.

He followed and leant against the front room doorframe just as Chad had in the kitchen. He watched his sister smile and play and dance when she won a game. And even though he was pretty sure Chad was letting her win, he didn't want her to stop smiling.

He didn't ever want to.

* * *

**Haha, I actually made the sequel's first chapter rather quickly. Okay, so it wasn't record time exactly, but you have no idea how many times I wrote a beginning and then hated it and started it all over again. **

_**Reviewsums pleasums?**_


	2. Scaring Her Senseless

**Okay, so I'm not really on the way to beating 84 reviews, am I? Come on, people, I know some of you have no time to please this random person you don't know, but I had 58 visitors and 2 reviews. From my sister and friend – again. I also know me going on like this probably annoys you, but I want to be an author – you guys are scaring me into thinking that I'm not good enough. I accept anonymous reviews – I just wanna know what you think, is that too much to ask? **

**Still, here's the second chapter:**

**Title: Rebuilding Foundations**

**Summary: Sequel to Have Faith. Ashley is starting to return back to normal, but when Troy decides to go to camp, will she cope? And how will her feelings influence Troy in his college choices?**

**Disclaimer: I wish I did, but I don't. **

**Chapter Title: Scaring Her Senseless**

'_Every single time someone mentions our parents or their parents, you take all your anger out on me! I hate you! And I bet you hate me!'_

_He let go of my wrist and hit me so hard I couldn't stop the tears rolling down at full speed. I held the side of my face, trying to ease the pain. I could see him staring at his hand. Oh God, Troy, I'm so sorry I anger you. It's not my fault. It's not my fault._

Ashley sat up in bed as she had done countless times before, breathing deeply. Under the breath, she knew she was still whispering 'It's not my fault' as if she was still living her nightmare. Slowly, she began to calm down and say aloud that it wasn't real. 'Just a dream…'

But it wasn't a dream. It never had been. She was just reliving the nightmare she called her life. And as she begged herself to have a dreamless sleep, she slowly lay back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling until her brain finally gave in.

* * *

Ashley sat up in bed calmly when she woke up next. She closed her eyes slowly, a smile twitching at the corner of her lips that her mind had obeyed her and not had any dreams. As she opened her eyes, they met another pair and she screamed quietly, holding her chest. 'Oh my God, Troy, don't _do _that!'

'Sorry.' Troy held his hands up defensively. 'But I couldn't wake you, so I sat on the bed until you did wake up.'

'No kidding.' Ashley glared at him. 'You scared me to England and back.'

Troy grinned. 'It's breakfast, kiddo. Come downstairs when you want to.'

'I don't.' Ashley groaned, lying back in bed. Troy rolled his eyes and leaned over her. 'Chad brought Shane over.'

'Really?!' Ashley sat back up too quickly and they hit their heads together. Troy groaned holding his forehead. When he saw Ashley was laughing, he raised his eyebrows. 'Payback, Troy. Payback.'

Troy glared at her playfully. 'Oh, you are _so _in for it now.'

Ashley pushed past him and ran downstairs. 'You have to catch me first!' She ran into the kitchen and closed the door behind her, sliding down it, giggling.

Shane got up from his stall and walked over. 'I told him not to wake you.'

'Thanks.' Ashley said, still laughing under her breath. Suddenly the door on the other side of the room opened and Troy ran in. 'Ha!'

'Uh oh.' Ashley got up and yanked the door open, trying to run out. Suddenly Chad was there in front of her, grabbing her round the waist and tickling her.

'Aha. You're surrounded.' Troy said, walking forward. Suddenly Shane jumped on his back and Troy stumbled back. 'Hey, you're my friend!'

'She's my girlfriend!' Shane retorted, putting his hands over Troy's eyes.

Chad dropped Ashley to help Troy and she ran upstairs, hearing the laughs from downstairs. She got dressed so that she had an excuse as to why they couldn't come in. As the noise died down, she slowly made her way down the steps cautiously. She saw the door was ajar and was about to walk in when she heard low voices.

'…you going to tell her?'

'Not yet. I'll tell when the time's right.'

'But you leave for Cali in 9 days. You don't have that much time, you know.'

Ashley swallowed, her eyes widening fearfully.

'I know. I don't know how to tell her though, guys. She's fragile enough as it is.'

'But you're going for 8 weeks, Troy. She has a right to know.'

Ashley choked back a sob and all noise in the room stopped. The door opened and her older brother stood there, looking uncomfortable. 'A-Ash…'

Ashley, not wanting him to see her break, ran off out of the house, not sparing a glance at him. 'Ashley! Wait, Ash, come back!' he yelled, running after her. Chad and Shane were left, staring at each other, both in awkward states.

**Please, please, please, please review!**


	3. Helping Her Out

**Title: Rebuilding Foundations**

**Summary: Sequel to Have Faith. Ashley is starting to return back to normal, but when Troy decides to go to camp, will she cope? And how will her feelings influence Troy in his college choices?**

**Disclaimer: I wish I did, but I don't. **

**Chapter Title: Helping Her Out  
**

'_Daddy, Troy won't push me!' _

'_Troy, push your little sister.' _

'_But I'm busy, Dad! Can't you do it?' 12-year-old Troy said – he wasn't actually doing anything, he just couldn't be bothered to push Ashley._

'_Troy!' _

'_Ugh, fine. You so owe me for this.' Troy said, getting up. _

'_I don't owe you anything. She's your little sister; it's your responsibility to protect her and look after her just as much as it is mine. One day, your mother and I will be gone and you'll have to care for her.' _

_Troy knew how much his family meant to him really, and jogged over to his little sister and grabbed the back of the playground swing, ran backwards and let her go. _

'_Troy…' After a few more swings, he heard her naive voice. 'What did Daddy mean when he said he and Mommy will be gone one day? Are they going to move away from us?'_

_Troy looked down and stopped the swing. He came round to the front and looked at her. 'Ash…all you need to know right now is that I'll always be here for you.' He went back round and started to swing her again. 'No matter what.' _

Ashley pushed herself off the ground of her own accord with her feet grazing the concrete. 'No matter what…' she whispered. 'Yeah right.'

She kept swinging slowly, not really kicking herself high above the ground. Her hands tightened around the chains until her knuckles went white. There were footsteps behind her.

She bent her head. 'Go away, Troy. I don't need you.'

'I'm not Troy. Or, at least, last time I checked I wasn't.' Ashley spun round and caught sight of a bright green fedora.

'Oh, hey Ryan.' She turned back. 'Sorry about that.'

She was happy it wasn't Troy, but at the same time she was unhappy he hadn't come after her.

'What's wrong?' Ryan asked, coming to sit next to her on the other swing.

'I…' Ashley couldn't help but stare forwards at the slide. '…Nothing. It's nothing.'

'Doesn't seem like nothing. _I don't need you_ isn't usually how you'd greet a person.'

'Oh. That.' Ashley said innocently. 'It's just…Troy's going away to camp for eight weeks, and he didn't tell me, and I heard him talking to Chad and Shane through the door, and I want to be happy for him, but I can't, and I don't want to hold him back, and I'm babbling, aren't I?'

'Yeah, little bit.' Ryan laughed lightly. 'Look, Ashley, I'm not gonna try and lull you into hating Troy, but I'm not gonna try and make you love him either.' Ryan sighed slightly. 'All I'm gonna say is that you're not holding him back. If you were, he wouldn't have taken that offer. He would have declined it because he was too caught up in your emotions. So don't think you're holding him back, alright?' His words were somewhat harsh – however the look of realisation on her face made him feel better about his advice.

Ashley looked to the side to glance at his face, her hands unclenching on the chains. '…But how come he couldn't tell me?'

'Troy was probably just not sure how to tell you, because the balance of his emotions and your emotions just isn't…'

'Balanced?'

Ryan grinned. 'Yeah. He wants to go to this camp because he's good at it, and you don't want him to go because you'll miss him. It's understandable, you know, it's human nature.'

'But…how will I cope? Who will I go to? What if something happens when he's gone?'

'Tell you what…' Ryan turned on his side to look her just as he had done to him. '…I'm sure Sharpay won't mind; she loves you…'

'Where you going with this, dancer boy?' Ashley raised one eyebrow.

'Hey, I resent that.' Ashley's other eyebrow raised to make a disbelieving look. 'I sing as well.' Ashley's face broke into a grin. 'What I was thinking…our mom and dad are out of town…' he made sure his mention of parents hadn't offended her but she didn't seem too fazed. '…me and Sharpay could look after you while Troy's in Cali.'

Ashley's mouth dropped open. 'No way?'

'Yeah, I guess it could happen. But, don't get your hopes up; I don't know whether Sharpay will say yes, I don't know whether my _parents_ will say yes, I don't know how long they're going for…etcetera.'

'I know.' Ashley looked away briefly. 'That would be great.'

'Yeah, I'm sure it would.' Ryan grinned.

Ashley looked away silently, seeing a boy heading towards her. She was about to glance away but he was staring straight at her. He walked over with a little girl behind him. 'Hey, excuse me, but could my little sister use that swing?' he raised one eyebrow, obviously fed up with the little girl beside him.

'Oh, sorry. Sure.' Ashley got up, and Ryan mirrored her movements. The boy rolled his eyes at her, gesturing that he was bored. 'Hey, I know what it's like.' She said quietly.

'You got a little sister?' he said hopefully, as the girl climbed on, grinning.

'No, I _was_ the little sister.' She said, smiling and walking off, waving to Ryan.

* * *

The steady ticking of the clock was getting on Chad Danforth's nerves. He'd never been a fan of silence – that's why he hated the library. So when the silence was broken every second with a loud tick of the clock, he couldn't help but grit his teeth. He really wished his brother hadn't followed Troy when he ran out. He'd got a phone call earlier to say that if Ashley didn't come home soon, he'd ring the police.

Suddenly he heard the doorbell ring. He figured it was probably Troy or Shane or Ashley – since none of them had taken keys. As he opened the door, he looked down at the head of wavy blonde-brown hair and smiled. 'Oh God, Ashley, I'm so glad you came back.'

'Yeah, me too.' She said quietly, not moving an inch.

'Come on.' Chad stood to the side to let her in and followed her to the front room, closing the door behind him.

'So, where's Troy then?' she said quietly.

'Out looking for you.' Chad said, sitting on the couch.

Ashley rocked on her heels as she tried to figure out something to say. 'So…how are you?' she said, mentally cursing herself for such a stupid train of conversation.

'Troy nearly has a search party out looking for you – I should go call him.' Chad said, ignoring her question. He got up and went into the kitchen, taking out his cell phone.

Ashley sighed and slipped off her shoes and climbed onto Chad's warm seat, curling into a ball. She could feel the tears stinging her eyes, so she wiped at her face and buried her head in her arms.

* * *

'Okay, I'll be right there!' I take off running down the street, slipping my cell into my jeans pocket.

I don't know what to do now – Ashley is so fragile, and just as she's getting better, I go and leave her again. I hate to be so selfish, but I know that my dad would want me to do this if he were still here.

God, I miss them so much. I know I'm lucky in a way – I did get 17 years with them, 4 more years than Ash did. I just can't help feeling jealous of Chad and Gabriella and especially Ryan and Sharpay, seeing the twins have both their parents. Sure, they're not always around, but at least they're still alive.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to say to Ash when I see her. I'm sorry? Where do you want to go? Where do you want to stay when I'm in Cali? Do you want time to arrange something with Gabriella and her mom?

I get to the house and knock – hoping Chad will answer. Sure enough he does, and I nod and walk in. He tells me he's told Shane and that he has to go home now. I smile gratefully at him and let him out.

'Ash?' I call out through the house.

'_In here.' I mumble, hoping that he hears me. I don't want to yell right now. _

_He walks in and I look up. His face crumbles at the sight of me and I want to run just so that he doesn't have to look at me. _

'_I've been out looking for you.' He states. _

_I decide that it's probably easier just to say it now rather than later. _

'I'm sorry.' My little sister blurts out.

My eyebrows rise. 'Huh?'

'I'm sorry.' She repeats. 'I was being selfish.'

'No, no you weren't.'

_He sits beside me and wraps me in a hug, rocking me back and forth. _

'I'm sorry – I didn't mean to come across so bratty; I just…I'll be fine without you…'

'Oh, sweetie, it's okay.' I lean my cheek against the top of her dark blonde curls and smile.

'No, it's not…' She looks up at me. 'I'll be fine – Ryan said I might be able to stay with them while you go to Cali.'

'_That's good.' He hugs me tighter. 'You will be alright though?' _

'I'll be alright.' She clarifies. I'm not totally sure whether to believe her but I decide not to push it.

'_I'll be alright.' I say, nodding. _

_I won't be alright though – I love Troy; he's the only person in the whole entire I can trust with my life. What if I can't make it without him?_

**I know I've taken ages with this, but it's now half term so I am able to write more. I'm starting to take some GCSEs even though I'm in Year 9, and it's really taking up a lot of my spare time. I'm going to the beach tomorrow, and I'm seeing my best friend on Wednesday, and hopefully my baby cousin on Thursday, so I'll try and update loads of stories today. :D Hope you liked this chapter; please review!**

**Hugs, **

**Cassie x  
**


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